i-node one

A day late, but nonetheless here it is…

The Command Post - Global Recon - Nineteen Years Ago Today - Where Were You?
On January 28, 1986, the 25th Space Shuttle mission (STS-51L) ended in tragedy 73 seconds after launch; the Challenger Orbiter was destroyed and its seven-member crew killed.

I was in 9th grade (high school) in Clearwater, Florida which is nearly directly across the state on the Gulf coast. We were outside at lunch and saw the smoke plume follow the shuttle up but weren’t really paying attention to it. A few seconds later, we heard the low rumble, like thunder, and semi-muted “snap” of the explosion and looked up to see what was going on — not that we could tell from 300 miles away, on the ground. And then our woodshop teacher came out and told everyone to come inside because the space shuttle had exploded; we all said, “What? No way!” at the same time. Everybody gathered around the TV, listened and watched as the news was reported, for at least the next hour. I don’t remember much else of what happened that day, other than (re)watching that exploding smoke plume-cum-medussa-head over and over again. Even as far away as we were the smoke trail hung visibly in the sky that afternoon for what seemed like forever, full of the spirits of seven people haunting the sky perhaps saying their good-byes before moving on.

It may have been, maybe, a few days before the crude jokes started circulating at school and life for us returned to its normal course but I doubt anyone who was there has forgotten anything about that fateful day.